Monday, July 19, 2010

Dead Guy Ale

Tonight I'm drinking Dead Guy Ale brewed by Oregon Brewing Company in Newport, Oregon. Yeah, I know. The label says Rogue and everyone knows this is the classic Rogue beer. But I can certainly read the back half of the label! It's been a long time since I had me some Dead Guy, probably all the way back to the time I reviewed it in March, 2009. Wow. I took advantage of a coupon I had and knocked the price of a sixer down to $8.99. Oh, now I remember why I don't drink this very often! Catchy name, and the skeleton on top of the beer barrel makes for an equally eye-grabbing label.

Malty and sweet honey aroma, with perhaps a touch of citrus in the background. The flavors start out with an orange citrus rind bite, along with some tea. Those flavors are challenged with some sweeter honey and a touch of caramel. By now, your mouth will be completely coated. Hoppy and bitter components, yet the beer is not bitter. A little spicy on the back side at which point you will also notice some drying alcohol, which also warms you up a bit. Digging around (because not on the beer profile at Rogue), I found this is a 6.5% alcohol beer (I guess you can trust Beer Advocate, for facts anyway). Good medium carbonation, creamy and smooth.

You know, this beer is NOT as I remembered it at all. I couldn't have told you what style it was or anything and perhaps just guessed a few flavors. Oh so many beers ago was March 2009! But I still think it's a really nice beer and despite losing touch, we're still old friends! We cool! Now I have four more left... Later.

Actually, Beer Advocate often has wrong abv percentages listed as beers change somewhat from year to year, and they usually only get updated when a member notices and reports it. Some beers swing wildly up and down the spectrum from year to year, so it may be different from what you see there (Smuttynose Gravitation went from something like 8.6% last year to 12% this year, for example--this is a significant jump).

My favorite is brutal bitter but they also do a fantastic imperial pilsner and it is $13 for 750ml! Fuck you! The brutal bitter is $13 a six pack! As you know I worked for them for a while but with the market in portland they are losing. Nationwide? Not that bad.

I've never been blown away by the few Rogue beers I've had, and some of their pricing makes me hesitant to try a few others. $4.50 for a 7 oz - christ! I'd rather put that on a 12 oz Gubna! However, I am very much looking forward to trying their spirits when they hit south FL. I have sone DFH gin that Ed gave me and I'd love to find Anchor's Old Potrero whisky.

They have some great ones and some that I could easily do without. Yes, the prices are often a deterrent, too. About the hard stuff, I'm not much of a spirits drinker. SoCo in college one night pretty much took care of that!

BDR, I didn't mean to agree with you, dude...sorry. Looking back, it was cheaperthantherapy that likes Double DG. That said, my real opinion remains that Dead Guy is still better than a lot of other horse piss out there (like Bud with Lime...sends cold shivers down my spine just to type it!).